Team Bondi are now bankrupt and the remaining staff are going to be bought by KMM, including Brendan McNamara who was instrumental in sealing the deal. Apparently Depth Analysis (the sister company who own the face tech) are also in some trouble after making little to no money off of LA Noire (like TB themselves).

Rockstar own the LA Noire ip, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest.

But LA Noire sold like 3 million copies in a month, and still charts pretty regularly in Europe.

I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

For a game to have sold as well as LA Noire did, the development of the MotionScan tech must have cost a fortune.Edit: Oh yeah, it was also a dev marathon (6+ years was it?). That still seems like some way unbalanced spending.

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest.

Lookie what we have here...

It didn't come off that Cage was referring to finances and profitability. Which is why people got into an argument in the first place.

I thought it sold over a million as well... just how much money did they invest into LA Noire? I thought this game was a hit...

Depending on how it cost... that might not even be enough. I know historically "million seller" has always been a benchmark, but these damn games are costing so much that it is entirely possible that it's not enough anymore.

Originally Posted by Sho_Nuff82

I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

Eh... this game was mismanaged for 7 or 8 years, and the studio was run by an incompetent dictator. Thankfully not every game is like that (more than there should be, though).

But LA Noire sold like 3 million copies in a month, and still charts pretty regularly in Europe.

I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

I think this will improve next gen, like many others. Things need to come down, not get exponentially complex.

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest.

Lookie what we have here...

While the face tech would be expensive its really not the reason for any of this, it looks to me (just by the known history) like McNamara was hard to work with after Sony dropped the project they would have had to self fund, leading to McNamara taking what ever offer Rockstar would give him, turns out the deal meant they kept all the cash.

A lot of expensive tech and development time for what ended up being a mediocre (at best) game.

I won't lie, I fell for the marketing hype. I read up and I was impressed by the tech. And I will admit, the facial animations are great. But at the end of the day I just didn't have *fun* with LA Noire.

Doesn't mean the amount sold makes it turn a profit. There's without a doubt massive and insane R&D budgets and after seven years, there must have been some serious employee costs involved.

But the game is still selling pretty good right now--topped both months on NPD, and has been expected to shift 4 million from what I recall (may be inaccurate, just going off memory). Pulling the plug on the Studios so soon after it released seems a bit off base to me. Craziness, actually. Anyways, I hope for the best for the employees--pity that they were brought down after their game was a hit.

Depending on how it cost... that might not even be enough. I know historically "million seller" has always been a benchmark, but these damn games are costing so much that it is entirely possible that it's not enough anymore.

Indeed, which is inherently a very sad ordeal. I don't suppose any of us here are privy to the costs they faced with LA Noire?